Cosplay Fusion
June 27, 2009 (Saturday), 4pm
South Court, Power Plant Mall, Rockwell
There will be a cosplay competition that will be held within the Powerplant Mall, Rockwell, Makati City. June 27, 2008. So block off this date on your calendars! Dokissaten Maid & Butler Cafe in partner with FullyBooked’s PressCafe will also be there!
Cash Prizes:
1st Place – P12,000
2nd Place – P8,000
3rd Place – P5,000

Also, the Dokissaten Cafe (formerly known as the Doki Doki Kissaten Cafe) will be partnering with Fully Booked to give you another experience to join the cafe. The cafe has been present at Kourtyard Caffe (along Katipunan Ave. – last March), at the Shizen Orchestra convention (at SMX last April) and will now be at Powerplant. With new additions to the cast, a wider variety of butlers and maids, there’s a lot more to look forward to.

Other event details will be posted as soon as they are finalized and come out. Watch out for more advertising soon. 🙂

The interview with the Tuxedo Team has been long overdue, and since I hate procrastinating too much, I’ve decided to post the interviews as they go. In this post, I had a short email correspondence with Tuxedo Team member China Capay and sent her an email arranging for an online interview. As follows is the flow of the interview. Enjoy and hope you learn something from the interview, especially for avid cosplayers and budding photographers.

Interview:

1. Are you a cosplayer? A photographer? Both?

Both, although, I am more of a photography hobbyist than an aspiring professional.

2. When did you begin interest in such things? Why? Who/What influenced you?

My interest in cosplay stemmed from my early childhood when (I) glimpsed anime shows like Dragon Ball on TV with my older brother. Anime wasn’t widely popular in the country back then so I used to watch the shows on the Japanese channels until they started showing them on local TV. Fast forward to the summer before entering college, I, along with my friend Jin were surfing the net and many times, we’d see beautiful photos of cosplayers that enthralled us. Later on, we discovered that an anime convention was to be held in a local mall so we did our research and given our long-standing passion for anime, we decided to try it out.

Cosplay it seems, was something just bound to happen, given my ready passion for playing dress up and anime.

3. Did you do things to get yourself more learned/experienced in that field? What?

During my first cosplay attempts, I didn’t really have much experience at all; neither did my friends. So we kind of just stuck it out. Initially making visual parodies of anime clichés using our own clothes until after much trial and error, we slowly figured out how to put a costume properly together.It was awkward at first, like I didn’t know a single thing about styling wigs or make-up, and things looked pretty dreadful. But at the end of every convention, it was always the fun and the silliness about cosplay that kept me going. With much experience, I learned to be more particular about fabric, wigs, props, and portraying the characters.

4. How would you define yourself in relation to your field of interest?

I’d say I evolve in the way I do things as much as I have grown from cosplaying the characters. There’s a sense of maturity in being able to experiment and revamp methodologies, and widening one’s perspectives in each little project I do, be it in cosplay, painting, design, or photography.

5. Have you won any awards, or been given any recognition in your particular field?

In cosplay, I don’t recall winning much awards because I hardly ever joined the contests. I have however, been given recognition for my portrayals along with my friends and have been invited to judge a couple of cosplay contests.

6. Do you think your works, or you yourself, have any influence on people or a certain trend in society?

I didn’t think much of my influence towards others when I started this hobby; but as I continued on with it, many people seem to have reacted positively towards my cosplays. That’s not to say I haven’t received negative comments either, I have. More importantly, I’ve received feedback regarding how I, along with my friends, have inspired people into having better outlooks not just in cosplay, but in some area of their lives as well. This is greatly overwhelming. It validates my friends and me, knowing that our silly hobby amounts to some form of constructive good for people.

7. What message would you like to share through what you have learned in your field?

Cosplay is a wonderful means for expressing one’s passion for anime, manga, and Japanese culture. It’s a great way to meet new people, enhance one’s craft, build confidence, learn different trades, and be resourceful. It is not however, an excuse to put others down for the sake of shallow popularity and recognition because at the end of it all, it’s a hobby where geeks play dress up. It can lead to many awe-inspiring things and also very abusive things.

The reality is that, there are many who lose track of what cosplay is all about: having GOOD FUN. Some make it into a sort of contest for recognition; hence, egos burst, insecurity issues build up, and friendships get strained which shouldn’t be the case at all.

Cosplay is a great, creative escape for anyone who’s ever watched anime and fallen in love with the characters, the story, and the anime-world in its entirety. It shouldn’t be some kind of nightmare where people mess with other people’s feelings or lives.

On a short note…Mad Mad Fun‘s Kawaii Girls Season 1 is finished. Well, it’s been finished since October 27 but this is the only time I’ve been able to watch Mad Mad Fun for the “finishing episode”.

Past all those kawaii (cute) and pretty teens-young adults who’ve presented themselves for the past 3 months in front of all the viewers, doing the most interesting (and sometimes embarrassing but FUN) of things for the show…viewers and people alike chose their most favorite kawaii girl on the show.

Proud to say, I’m very happy to present that my very kawaii schoolmate and friend Alodia Gosiengfiao, won the title of most kawaii girl, garnering 100,000 worth of Levi’s vouchers as well as the unending devotion from her many fans. As well, I would also like to congratulate another fellow Blue Eagle and a friend of mine, Tricia Gosingtian who was simply wicked awesome and uber cute on the show!

Congratulations Edjie and Tricia on doing such a good job and making Ateneo proud of such amazing students.

Oh, and past that..Denise, is also a Kawaii girl from the home of the Blue Eagles! I’d like to congratulate another Blue Eagle for a job well done.

I am thinking of interviewing the Tuxedo Team for my next “Art of Cosplay” article. After that, I have some other Atenean cosplayer friends in mind whom I’d like to introduce as well. In addition, there are some things concerning cosplaying and dressing up that I might put up, but it’s still pending.

Sorry for the no-update on this blog. I’ve been busy with school and I haven’t found the time to actually write about something other than personal rants (which are in my personal blog). But once the semester is over, which is a month’s time, I might be able to update more often.